Building Connections – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 6 Review

So how’s this episode? It’s excellent–probably my favourite one so far.

Wow, high praise–so how much fan service is in it? None whatsoever.

What?! Who are you and what have you done with the real Cactus Matt? Ha ha. But I’m dead serious, this episode managed to capture an ineffable quality that I couldn’t help but be enraptured by while also introducing us to Shizu–a fellow Japanese person who was summoned to this world to be used as a weapon.

An early contender for best girl of this show. Guess we’ll have to meet the others first to get a definitive answer on that though!

Oh? Well that’s pretty interesting! Care to go into detail on that? Well the episode only gives us a teaser–undoubtedly there’s more to come in the next episode but what we do learn (and what was teased in the very first scene of the first episode) is that Shizu was just a child living in WW2 era Japan and was in the midst of escaping a bombing raid with her mother when she was “summoned” via a torrent of swirling fire to the fantasy world that this series is set. And I love the fact that there’s seemingly multiple ways of people coming to this world from ours, it’s not just all the same way and it’s not just one person like so many isekai tend to be.

Poor Shizu.

And what about the rest of the episode? What was so “ineffable” about it? If it’s “ineffable” that means I have trouble putting it into words, doesn’t it?

True, but I mean do at least try will you? That is your job after all… Rimuru returns to the goblin village to find at least 3 other goblin tribes have joined their village seeking refuge from the growing threat of monsters in the surrounding woods. He’s hesitant to let them stay because it makes his–and everyone else’s–jobs more difficult but he knows if he turns them away they’ll become monster chow. So he let’s them stay and we see as slow but gradual process is being made on turning the place into a place worth living. And I ~love~ the whole ‘building a town’ from scratch thing that’s going on. It taps into a very specific love I have of town building sims like ‘SimCity’ and variants but also just that primal desire to create.

We’ll build a casino on the left and an international airport on the right.

Doesn’t seem so “ineffable” after all. Anything else? We’re also re-introduced to the scouting adventurers that Rimuru (briefly) encountered at the cave entrance back in Episode 2. And I love these guys, they’ve got a great dynamic and even if they aren’t around for long it was fun to have some more ‘human’ characters around for once!

That sounded kinda racist. Yeah it did a bit, didn’t it? Apologies to any non-humans who were offended by that remark!

But have you ever been ‘stuff your face’ hungry?

What was your favourite moment of the episode? I’m glad you asked (almost like I planned that). I genuinely shed some tears when Rimuru ‘shared his memories’ with Shizu–showing her a very brief clip-show of how far Japan has come since WW2 and that it’s now a place of peace for everyone. It was very sweet of Rimuru and while obviously helping in endearing Shizu to Rimuru it also served as outlying Rimuru’s goal going forward. He wants to be able to bring peace to this world too–a noble goal indeed!

Conveniently gets around having to explain to her what skyscrapers are.

Seems like nothing but praise for the episode, huh? Oh I could nitpick if you force my hand. The scene with Shizu, while emotional was over far too quick in my opinion. I’d have been happy if it went a few more minutes, but then again we’re probably getting a whole episode about her next week so I can’t be too greedy. Also Rimuru’s new goal of bringing peace–seemingly comes out of nowhere–or rather maybe it’s just his way of trying to win the heart of this new girl whose life has seemingly known nothing but combat. Regardless, I still think this episode was strong, as I have thought so of the previous and look forward to watching more!